Rolling Back Abortion Rights After Donald Trump’s Election

Last year, Teresa Fedor, an Ohio state representative, a veteran and a former public-school teacher, told the story of her abortion after a rape in a statement on the House floor. “I dare you to walk in my shoes,” she said to lawmakers who were supporting a bill to ban abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat could be detected, as early as six weeks. “I understand your story, but you don’t understand mine.”

On Tuesday, Gov. John Kasich vetoed this year’s version of the unconstitutional “heartbeat bill.” But he signed into law a bill that would ban the procedure at 20 weeks after fertilization. The new law makes no exception for rape or incest and, like the heartbeat bill, is part of a dangerous nationwide effort to roll back abortion rights that has gained momentum with Donald Trump’s election.

Under Mr. Kasich’s leadership, Ohio has been especially aggressive in restricting reproductive rights. He has signed 17 new restrictions since taking office, and the number of abortion providers in the state has dwindled to nine from 16. The 20-week ban will make abortion illegal in all cases, except when necessary “to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

The Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot ban abortion before viability, which most experts put around 24 weeks. The court has also ruled that legislatures cannot establish a specific gestational age after which abortions are prohibited, because fetal viability varies from pregnancy to pregnancy. Nonetheless, Ohio and 17 other states have passed 20-week bans, with a vast majority of them based on the unproved claim that fetuses feel pain around 20 weeks.

Two 20-week bans have been struck down in federal courts as unconstitutional. But abortion opponents in Ohio believe the new law will withstand legal challenges, perhaps even at the Supreme Court. Robert Cupp, a Republican state representative, says he thinks the court will be swayed by medical advances allowing more very premature babies to survive. A victory at the Supreme Court could open the door for a federal 20-week ban, which was introduced last year but blocked by Senate Democrats.

Ms. Fedor fears that the 20-week ban will damage women’s health. But taking choice away from women and their doctors, she believes, will result in a backlash against anti-abortion forces. In Ohio, she says, there’s “a new sense of outrage” and a growing sense of urgency in fighting for reproductive rights.

Since the abortion bills passed the Legislature last week, thousands of protesters have marched, sent letters or made calls opposing them. Some protesters hung messages attached to wire hangers on the Ohio statehouse fence, reminders of an earlier era of unsafe abortion. One of the messages read, “We won’t go back.”